ACC Network’s identity will be different from SEC Network

To open ACC Media Days this past week, conference commissioner John Swofford didn’t have much to say about the ACC Network other than plans were on schedule. In a radio interview Friday, he expanded a bit more on how the network might look when it launches in 2019.

“You ask, ‘What’s the identity of the ACC Network?’ and I think the answer to that is ‘How do you think of the ACC now?'” Swofford said to 99.9 FM The Fan. “It’s figuring out how to present to a television audience — linear or digital — who you are.”

But then asked about whether the ACC might take a page out of the SEC Network’s playbook, Swofford responded:

“Neither conference wants that [a carbon copy]. We want our own identity, and I’m sure the SEC wants their own identity.”

ESPN will have a say in this as well, but after those comments, Joe Ovies of WRALSportsFan argued Friday that ACC fans won’t want to hear about how great its conference is all the time. The SEC Network props up its conference in that manner, Ovies writes.

WRALSportsFan reports programming decisions should begin early next year. ESPN and the ACC already have begun discussing how the channel is going to look, sound and handle sports coverage.